


Yukari

by viyeolent (tasittliv)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Basically Baekhyun's exes are the rest of the EXO members, Byun Baekhyun & Do Kyungsoo | D.O are Best Friends, F/M, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Open Ending, Past Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongin, Past Byun Baekhyun/Kim Taeyeon, Past Byun Baekhyun/Oh Sehun, Past Byun Baekhyun/Wu Yi Fan | Kris, mentions of rape/non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 02:48:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17014158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tasittliv/pseuds/viyeolent
Summary: Baekhyun only believes in two things: his best friend Kyungsoo and sex; definitely not in love, not anymore, and a confession from Park Chanyeol isn't going to change that.





	Yukari

**Author's Note:**

>  YUKARI / ゆかり was originally posted on [AFF](https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1216471) and imported here.
> 
> **DISCLAIMER:** Although it does not delve into the details, this work includes implications/mentions of **rape, abuse, and incest,** so if _ANY_  of the aforementioned are upsetting to you, **DO NOT**  read this. Most importantly, It is a work of _fiction_ set in a _fictional_ world. No matter how plausible, no matter how similar the story elements are to real life, at the end of the day, _none_ of this is true.
> 
> As always, **do not** re-post, translate, or plagiarize.
> 
> Thank you.

Ever since the day his science teacher told them that their children would take after their grandparents, his parents, Baekhyun had been dreaming of having a child of his own.

He wanted a little boy like him to whom he could pass down his mother's eyes. He even imagined a beautiful daughter who would smile the way his father probably had. He would finally see how his real parents looked like, he thought to himself, as he waited for mum to fetch him from school that day.

"Can I be a daddy soon?"

"I'm afraid not, dear," Mommy only laughed. He liked it when she did that. He liked her laugh.

"But I promise to be a good daddy."

"Even if you promise to be a good daddy.”

“Am I never going to be a daddy then?”

“Oh Baekhyun, it’s too soon for my baby to talk about having his own baby!"

Since then, he believed that, when the time comes, the family he would build would be just as happy as the one that adopted him.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

Baekhyun had been eight when he found his father in bed. He stood in the doorway as he rubbed his eyes to look at his new daddy better. Daddy was lost in the sheets with a person who definitely wasn’t mommy.

His foster father, who was actually only his stepfather, had simply pressed a finger against his own lips, telling Baekhyun not to make any noise. Baekhyun's teacher often did the same at school, good boys like Baekhyun always got a star for behaving in class. Baekhyun didn't understand why his stepdad would want him to be quiet when he saw that daddy was playing with someone. Baekhyun and his friends were always loud and rowdy when they're having fun, but daddy's playmate didn't look like he was having fun.

Baekhyun didn't know who that stranger was. He only knew that the boy underneath daddy was older than him and was much younger than daddy. The playmate was wiggling, vainly trying to crawl out of bed, and almost seemed terrified that Baekhyun had found them. They didn't seem to be playing hide and seek, and Baekhyun didn't know a game that needed a person to climb on top of someone else.

“If you're nice, I'll let you stay up tonight, okay?” Daddy told him.

Baekhyun didn't understand what he saw and so he kept quiet, just as daddy asked of him, because Baekhyun was a good boy and he had wanted a man to call his daddy for so long.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

Baekhyun had been ten the second time it happened. His mommy had gone to the hospital to have his older brother checked. She had finally discovered his back peppered with bruises, you see.

"When you get older, you have to move out. Find a dorm. Take a part-time job, okay? Don't stay here. Follow hyung and move out, okay, Hyun?"

His brother was a university student, a freshman in a campus filled with fraternities. She worried that he had joined one. Despite all the pressure she put on him, though, his older brother never confessed.

"Promise me, Baek. I don't want it happening to you too. Promise me."

But Baekhyun knew why. He knew more now. That didn't mean he knew better, though.

"Baekhyun, listen to me. Listen to hyung."

Because if he did, he wouldn't have kept quiet for a second time about the bruises; that there were more between his brother's legs, and about how daddy put them there.

When daddy visited his room that same night, it was his older brother who pulled the man away to save him again.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

Eight years and a messy annulment later, Baekhyun found himself turning eighteen at the rooftop of one of his university's buildings.

Sitting on top of the ledge and dangling his feet off of it, he threw away all of the shattered pieces of his dreams. He didn't deserve any of them. By having kept quiet, he had helped his foster father rob other people of their dreams. How was an eighteen year old boy supposed to come to terms with the burning image of his dream come true? Of a supposed picture-perfect family, after his foster father, the man he looked up to for so long, had truly become a convicted rapist?

Whenever mommy was gone, he watched his stepfather secretly bring strangers into their house. Baekhyun would listen to his otherwise meek father beat his brother in the bedroom next door at night. The man loved to fuck his older brother’s face and hit anywhere else, and Baekhyun wishes he hadn't known this. Baekhyun grew up believing it was normal to have someone watch him while he changed clothes; while he slept, while he bathed…

Maybe that was it. Maybe that was why his father robbed him of his dream too. Because it was only fair that he suffered with his dad's victims, as well. Or maybe it had simply been too much to wish for a happy family, one that could love him.

After all, his real family wouldn't have given him away if he had been deserving of any love at all.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

Baekhyun had been nineteen when his girlfriend of four years broke up with him.

He had always known her to be dependent on her best friend. She was wild when she drank too much, as all seniors were. He never thought that she would cheat on him, though, not with her female best friend on his own dormitory bed.

Maybe he should have known. His girlfriend and her best friend have always been so touchy with each other, after all, but he had close to no idea where the line between ‘friendly' and ‘intimate' was to begin with. He didn't even know what a normal familial relationship was supposed to be like because everyone in his family had already fucked each other, one way or another, so he supposed he had it coming.

For some reason, when he saw them... when he caught the cheating pair in the act with his very own eyes, he remembered his father.

Then he remembered how fucked up he was.

He remembered how disgusting he was.

Then it was his fourteenth all over again; the confusion, the loathing, the self-pity when he himself had been forced to take the place of father's playmate from many years ago. Like his father, his girlfriend was someone he trusted, she was someone he revered and cared for more than he did for himself. He hated himself so much more than he felt hurt by what he realized was betrayal. She hurt him, but he felt like he deserved what had happened.

The worse part was, he knew he loved her. He was so sure that he loved her. She was one of only three people he opened up to; who knew about the disgusting things he hid.

She was so important to him that he waited for her explanation. Like a fucking fool, he waited for her and the woman she was cheating on him with to finish, for in that moment, he was nothing more than a statue with a stone cold heart. He waited for her to tell him he mattered, to make the pain disappear like she used to, to say anything at all… but she didn’t. She only thanked him for not crying, for not shouting, for not being angry, then she left with her best friend and never came back.

Baekhyun was so strong, he showed up in the classes they both shared as if nothing ever happened between them. But he wasn't, really. He was anything but strong. It was the first time since his family broke apart that he had wanted to cry, but she had already broken his heart so many times before that he had nothing left to cry with.

He loved her. He really did. Kyungsoo had warned him about her plenty of times before, but every time, Baekhyun had been as quick to defend her. He should've seen it coming. Kyungsoo was always right, after all.

It was just that Baekhyun kept hoping, fight after fight after fight, that his best friend would be wrong for the first time.

If anything, Baekhyun only learned to blame himself more for getting hurt instead of blaming other people for hurting him.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

With all that he had watched Baekhyun go through, it was no wonder why Do Kyungsoo had grown so protective of him.

‘D.O.’ only cared for two things: personal success and Baekhyun’s happiness.

To him, having been born with a face that naturally warded off the weak and the unworthy was only one of the many advantages of being, well, him. That, in itself, was a purpose; his purpose. Thus, he also had, more or less, two primary goals in life: to be the absolute best and to terrorize undeserving people away from Baekhyun. This was because no one, absolutely no one, was going to make his best friend cry on his watch.

Do Kyungsoo didn't care whether they were both going to grow old and single with only each other left as their marriage prospect. He was determined to scare off every guy that was below the caliber of Kris Wu who was well-off, had a decent face, and was intimidating enough to crush challengers before the fights could even start. Kris was easily his favorite among Baekhyun's exes solely because Kris was the only one who ever came clean about his intentions from the very beginning. What a shameless pile of dung, Kris Wu was!

Anyway, when Kyungsoo said every guy, he really meant every guy. This definitely included the business major in the white dress shirt, framed by a crisp black blazer and tucked neatly into dark slacks, and whose hand was outstretched as the latter smiled an excessively dazzling smile.

"Hi, I'm Park Chanyeol,” said so-called ‘Park Chanyeol’, whose deep voice was as rich and smooth as, well, the guy's stupidly blessed face.

Only one word came to his mind, and that word was: asshole.

Kyungsoo was already scowling within seconds, unimpressed with the tall guy who dared to bypass him by directly approaching his best friend. "What do you want?" He instantly growled. Always having been the ‘nice’ one out of their cliché angel-devil duo, Baekhyun immediately pulled him back and massaged his tense shoulders. It made him feel triumphant, the fact that his best friend wasn't taking the stranger's hand. At least, not right away.

"Hello! How can we help you, Chanyeol?"

Kyungsoo's blood began to simmer when stupid Park blatantly ignored his existence to lean closer to his--very cute, mind you, he had always been so proud of Baekhyun--best friend and say, "Oh, no. Just you."

Kyungsoo wanted to gag. He rolled his prominent eyes and audibly grumbled at this exchange, scrunching his nose at the stench of eau de parfum that already smells an awful lot like a couple of hundred thousand Korean won. It smelled so good that Kyungsoo immediately knew it was the very kind he knew to look out for. Nothing said ‘I'm actually a douchebag’ better than luxurious perfume that stinked like the likes of Oh Sehun and the upper ten percent, after all.

He had a bad feeling about this, plus his gut was telling him that Park was the type to get what he wanted. Always. He utterly despised that type.

"Okay," Baekhyun corrected himself before Kyungsoo could vocalize his rapidly accumulating disdain. "How can I help you then?"

Suddenly, the confidence in Chanyeol's face turned into a sheepish smile, melting the hearts of those who were currently watching the campus flower boy and abolishing what was left of Kyungsoo's precious patience.

"I want to be your boyfriend."

Kyungsoo had reacted how any other overprotective best friend would have normally reacted.

He choked.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

"I'm sorry, but did I just happen to hear you say yes to that idiot?"

"He seemed really sincere, Dyo."

"Sincere my ass," Kyungsoo hissed. "Do you even know him?"

"I do now? Oh, but now that you've mentioned it, he does look familiar, doesn't he?"

Oh god.

Here's another idiot.

And Kyungsoo was best friends with this other idiot.

Of course, Park Chanyeol was familiar! Chanyeol was an ulzzang, and ulzzangs were a pretty huge deal in a visually cutthroat society. The stupid creature was even doing cameos for various television shows. God damn it, now Kyungsoo had to suffer seeing the guy's unsightly mug off-screen. If that wasn't enough, Park Chanyeol was the heir to Park & Co. and Viva Polo chain of restaurants. It was simply impossible not to hear the name Park at least once every month no matter how much of a modern caveman one aspired to be.

Their university was more famous for its solid business-related curriculums, so of course, the tycoons of Park’s lineage all but elevated student Chanyeol into local celebrity status even more. Within the campus, all he could hear was Park this, Park that, he swore he was going to go absolutely nuts. The university even had a building named after Chanyeol's grandfather, for goodness' sake! He passed by it every morning on his way to the College of Fine Arts and Design! Someone, please gouge his eyes out and chop his ears off!

How Baekhyun could not know Park Chanyeol, Kyungsoo only had the slightest idea. Admittedly, though, he loved the puzzled expression on Chanyeol’s face when the guy had approached them earlier and Baekhyun had only tilted his head the way his best friend usually did at complete strangers. That meant that Baekhyun didn't even know Park Chanyeol existed until that moment, but that gesture of Baekhyun's always made Baekhyun look cuter to others, so he was also mad.

Kyungsoo was mad about the thought that Park could possibly be interested in his best friend despite the fact that they haven't interacted before at all. Guys like Park Chanyeol just don't ever confess out of the blue, and he learned this the hard way after Baekhyun had agreed to date Oh Sehun. And oh, how he loathed Oh Sehun.

And then Park Chanyeol did confess.

Then all hell broke loose and Baekhyun already knew to grab him before he could launch himself at the tall bastard.

“How is he familiar?”

“I don't know. I just feel like I’ve seen his face before.”

“Think about it! Have you met him somewhere before? Parties? Classes? I don't know, org meetings?”

“I don't think I have…? Oh. I think we were classmates in grade school?"

“No,” Kyungsoo slapped his forehead. "No, Hyun, you weren't. We were classmates."

Baekhyun chuckled and fell in line with his steps on their way to class. “I know, I know. Your face was getting darker and darker, I had to do something,” his best friend appeased, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “You really don't like him, do you?”

“Do you even have to ask?”

“Haha, you're right.”

“You're not going to take him seriously, are you?”

“It’s just one date.”

“He asked to be your boyfriend. You're his boyfriend now, too. That’s not just one date.”

“We don't know each other, Soo. It won't work out. He’ll get bored soon after, then we'll just break up. Rinse and repeat with the next guy. Or girl. Whichever. Five dates, tops.”

He didn't comment further or ask about how Baekhyun could be so nonchalant about it, partly because he also thought the same. With that exchange alone, they already knew that Park was just too different. The giant freak most likely wore Armani and genuine leather belts sent straight from Italy on his jolly way to becoming richer every day while Baekhyun dirtied his hands with traditional charcoal, paint and the metaphorical stains that his best friend still could not get rid of; that nobody else would truly understand.

What started out as childhood art therapy became the profession Baekhyun eventually thought to pursue. It even earned him a scholarship grant. His best friend was that amazing. Kyungsoo swore he could gush about Baekhyun all day, he was so proud it reached a level of physical pain, sometimes.

He desperately wished that other people would recognize Baekhyun for his talent more than they recognized him as a beautiful face attached to a ‘fucktastic' body, but disgusting rumors and shitty exes made that last part really difficult to achieve. Baekhyun had countless of admirers in their college building alone and a handful of exes scattered throughout the campus; some of them ridiculously bitter, most of them thankfully indifferent. If Kyungsoo could be honest, not that he would ever voice it out… it saddened him to remember that Baekhyun didn't believe in relationships anymore and even less in love. Baekhyun used to, though, but since Baekhyun's last girlfriend, his best friend had been… unavailable.

He missed the old Baekhyun. He wanted Baekhyun to be happy again, not just romantically preoccupied every now and then with whoever was brave enough to ask. Personally, he would rather judge someone and then be proven wrong, than trust someone and then regret having done so later, and so, no matter how much he convinced himself to want to give Park Chanyeol a chance to be The One, he was simply more convinced that Baekhyun had already gone through too much for them to gamble on just a ‘chance'.

“Tell me about him.”

“Who?”

“Chanyeol. Park Chanyeol, right? You seem to know a lot about him.”

“I've seen him around a couple of times…” Kyungsoo grunted, irked by the name's syllables alone. “What do you want to know?”

“Just tell me anything~”

“Be specific.”

“Tell me anything! I want to know more! Don't you think it's a shame to not know anything about my new boyfriend aside from his face?”

“Well, I think this conversation is getting too long.”

“What? D.O. please~”

“Alright, fine,” Kyungsoo groaned, muttering under his breath, “Here's a fun fact: your new boyfriend has eyes the size of his balls and stands over six feet of overcompensation.”

“Overcompen--ya!” Baekhyun shrieked in response, both scandalized and inappropriately entertained. “Kyungsoo! Behave!”

“What are you trying to scold me for? I do it every time but you never fail to laugh. You do such an incredible job at discouraging me, Baekhyun.”

His best friend only broke out into another laugh, this time bodily latching onto him with a hug and snatching everyone else's attention. He didn't understand what made his statements funny to this guy and he didn't care enough to try harder to think about it. This went on until he had managed to drag both himself and Baekhyun in the right hall and had dumped the guy in the seat next to him. Merely halfway into the lecture, he was already tallying three new guys staring and had caught fourteen different glances, all directed at oblivious Baekhyun, who was sneakily sketching an image of another elf prince instead of jotting down notes.

No matter what he seemed to do, Byun Baekhyun effortlessly made heads turn. That was a fact.

No matter what happened, Do Kyungsoo made sure that all those heads did were turn and stay a hundred feet away from his best friend. That's another fact.

 

 

\-  -  -

 

 

To be fair, Baekhyun expected nothing from his new boyfriend.

'Boyfriend' was just another label to him, another excuse to try another guy out and to see how long they would last before they called it quits. One could even assume that dating was his hobby. He would argue that it was more of a habit, because hobbies were enjoyable things and, well, he didn't always enjoy himself. Dating, to him, involved practiced lines and more than his hands and mouth and, thus, was really nothing more than a routine that made him sweat and just a bit busier; just a little bit more attainable; just a tad less mysterious to whomever he was currently involved with.

So imagine his surprise when he found Park Chanyeol wandering around his floor after class, sticking out like a sore thumb in his sleek prestigious Business Management uniform amongst the comfortable attires of all the budding dancers and artists of his college building.

“Let's go before he notices you,” D.O. suggested, quickly tugging him away after they slipped out of the room.

“Do you think he's looking for me?” Baekhyun wondered as he followed after his best friend but continued observing the tall man from the end of the hall, who was currently peeking at the distant rooms one by one and inadvertently attracting a small albeit rapidly growing crowd of curious onlookers.

“I don't know. Let's leave before we find out.”

“But Dyo, he looks lost. Look. Do you think he's lost?”

“Don't worry about him, his father will just send a private copter to fetch him later and then tell the university to build a walkway for him so it doesn't happen again.”

He had to admit, that was funny. “Seriously, look at him. I've never seen anyone lure that many people in so fast. He might get mobbed.”

“If he were being attacked by a zombie horde right now, would you think of helping him? Think about it. Keep in mind that you'll get mobbed, too, Hyun. Think very hard until the yes turns into a no.”

“That's pretty extreme, Kyungsoo,” he laughed just as he threw one last glance at his alleged boyfriend.

Then their eyes met.

If earlier he wasn't sure, then now he was certain. The man had indeed been looking and waiting for him, and now he was watching a smile bloom on Park Chanyeol's face. He doesn't remember the last time he had watched someone smile wide enough like that. It was… a rather refreshing smile.

Baekhyun stopped in his tracks, much to D.O.’s dismay, and smiled politely at the enthusiastic wave his boyfriend was making from a short distance away.

“Hey,” Chanyeol greeted once he was close enough. “Are you done for today?”

D.O. was glaring beside him, he could already sense it. If Kyungsoo were a cat, the guy would probably be bristling right now.

“We’re done for today,” Baekhyun replied, linking his arm with his best friend’s.

“Great! I was wondering if you would like to have dinner with me?”

“I’d like that. But I already have plans with D.O. here so, maybe some other time? How about tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow night is great,” Chanyeol nodded but was far from deterred, he discovered, because the former followed unhesitantly after D.O. began pulling him away once more. “So, where are you headed? I can drive you.”

“There's a barbecue place near our dorm,” he humored, but he could tell D.O. didn't exactly appreciate Chanyeol talking to him as if his best friend weren't there so he placed himself between the two men.

You know… just in case.

“Let's not eat barbecue tomorrow night then,” Chanyeol hummed from his right, easily over-towering him and, he supposed, triggering his best friend just the slightest bit more because the latter had always reserved a fixed amount of hate towards more vertically blessed individuals.

“Where do you plan on taking Baekhyun anyway?” D.O. said lowly from his left, it almost sounded like a growl.

“Hmm. Is there any place you’d like to try?” Chanyeol responded, simultaneously locking D.O. out again while leaning closer to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun wasn't sure if their hands brushing was intentional, but nonetheless, he shrugged and said any place was good. He didn't have allergies as far as he knew. He just really hated cucumber. He noticed more people staring than usual while they made their way out. Some of them narrowing, including D.O.’s, once Chanyeol managed to slip an arm around his waist while they were inside the elevator going down.

“You don't have to drive us there,” Baekhyun announced as they left the building and Chanyeol led them to where he had his car parked.

“I want to. I'm your boyfriend from today onwards, remember?” Chanyeol answered and unlocked the back seat of his Mercedes before he gestured towards D.O. “Oh. I realize I am at fault for not having introduced myself properly to you guys this morning. Can we start over? Do Kyungsoo, right?”

His best friend’s face was stoic, it would've sent other people chills down their spines, but to him, it meant D.O. was thinking. He was actually considering listening to Chanyeol. For some reason, Baekhyun found himself hoping that D.O. really would. He kind of wanted to see more of Chanyeol's smile.

“Baekhyun is my best friend,” D.O. stated, squeezing their linked arms just a little bit.

To which, Chanyeol immediately heaved, as if a weight had been lifted from his chest. “I had hoped that was the case,” the taller man chuckled. “You’re always together. Even your names in lists!”

Baekhyun didn't ask what his ‘boyfriend’ meant by that, only stared at the palm that was suddenly being extended to his best friend. Then, he looked up at D.O. whose face was now unreadable. He couldn't tell if D.O. was disgusted, threatened, or impressed by Chanyeol's boldness. His best friend had always been the fierce and skeptical kind.

In the end, the handshake remained awkwardly unrequited but his boyfriend didn't seem to mind.

“I'm Park Chanyeol. I'm a second-year. I take care of two dogs back home and I know a thing or two about music, but unfortunately very little about art. I guess, the most important thing to know about me is that... I like Byun Baekhyun,” Chanyeol kept smiling, a wide albeit shy smile again, much like the way he had this morning.

“I'm right here…” Baekhyun quietly protested, allowing the other guy to discreetly hold his hand out of his best friend’s view.

“I know. Don't leave just yet, okay?” his boyfriend slightly laughed, full lips bending into another delighted curve. “I'm asking for your best friend's permission to date you.”

“What--you sound like you're going to propose. What makes you think I’d let you, anyway?” D.O. was quick to shoot. “What makes you think you're different from all the other guys that came before you?”

“None of those other guys is me,” Chanyeol countered. “I don't know anything about them, but I know I've liked your best friend since last year.”

“Surprise, surprise, little rich boy can lie through his teeth.”

Baekhyun swallowed in silence and squeezed the arm in his grasp to let D.O. know he was uncomfortable. He wanted this exchange to stop, especially when Chanyeol reminded him much of a jolly, oversized puppy trying to make friends with a hissing cat, but he knew there was no stopping just yet once his best friend finally noticed his hand in Chanyeol's bigger one and scowled even more deeply. He thought, right then, that he shouldn't have let Chanyeol hold his hand. Even he felt afraid of his best friend at that moment.

“Listen here. I've seen guys like you before, Park, and I didn't trust them. I don't trust you. And just so we’re clear,” D.O. jabbed a finger at the other guy's chest. “If you ever hurt Baekhyun, if you ever try anything that he doesn't like, I will cut you.”

“Alright,” Chanyeol simply nodded, surprising both him and D.O.

The common response they got were defensive ones, answers that challenged his best friend and often made much more tension and had even started a few brawls before, but this was new. Chanyeol holding his hand even more tightly while looking back directly into D.O.’s terrifyingly dark eyes with nothing but determination was new, and so it scared Baekhyun even more. It scared him that he was feeling glad about this; that he was feeling relieved that Chanyeol had answered the way he did.

Why was he feeling like this…?

(Just because someone broke his expectations for the first time in a very long while?)

It didn't stop there.

“If I hurt Baekhyun in any way, you are free to punish me any way you deem fit,” Chanyeol confirmed with a glance down at their entwined hands and then at his eyes, before sealing the promise with an irresistibly confident smile. “But if I make him so happy that even you can see it, then you have no choice but to let me be with him.”

D.O. scoffed loudly at this. “What a cocky bastard,” his best friend muttered, but something told him that D.O. was impressed. At least, for now. “Fine. I accept it.”

That made Baekhyun happy, too.

D.O. was still angry about this, surely, but at the very least, the guy was more open this time, even for just a tinier bit. And his best friend didn't look like he would cut his new boyfriend’s air supply if the latter didn't get out of his sight within the next five seconds, so… Chanyeol, whose eyes are bright and whose big hand was enveloping his smaller one with much warmth, was… probably off to a good start.

“Baekhyun is sitting with me,” D.O. suddenly claimed, pushing him inside the car--the backseat instead of shotgun beside Chanyeol--before hopping in as well, much to the car owner’s visible disappointment.

Baekhyun watched his best friend poke his head through the window and tell his boyfriend to get in the car with an impatient, “Why are you just standing there?”

“Coming, sir,” the business major relented and stole a glance from him, even looking at him through the mirror before D.O.’s glare cut the moment short, and drove them out of the spacious campus.

To be completely honest, Baekhyun had little to no expectations for Chanyeol. At least, no good ones, anyway. Good expectations always led to disappointment, after all.

(This way, he hadn't been disappointed in a long while.)

He already knew what was going to happen. Men like Chanyeol had confessed to him many times in the past and, whether they truly liked him or were merely lured in by the wild rumors about him, they all left the same way; suddenly and without another word. None of them wanted him, they wanted what they could take from him, and being in a ‘relationship’ merely brought it faster up to the surface. He was just a badge, a trophy; merely something to be shown off. It might have seemed dreamy and romantic to have so many handsome guys line up for him, but he didn't think it was… everything that he knew was going to happen after the confession wasn't romantic at all.

So now, Baekhyun stared at the back of his new boyfriend's head, peeking at the tall man from the backseat, and thought about how sensitive the elfish ears were; if Chanyeol would shudder if he bit on either tip, how hard Chanyeol would grind against him when he licks the shell of one of those cute ears, and how much deeper Chanyeol's voice could become once he started to kiss somewhere else… he wondered if Chanyeol wanted him to do all those things and more. He wondered if Chanyeol was one of those boyfriends who asked him out just to mark his skin and use it to spell out his own name.

He thought about how long this relationship with Park Chanyeol was going to last after they arrived and D.O. had reluctantly left his side to reserve a booth; about who was going to leave first when Chanyeol tugged at the hem of his polo to ask for his phone number; and, definitely, how shameful Chanyeol's fantasies of him were, if there were any, because Chanyeol was simply too tall and too big and too good to be true for anyone to believe that the likes of Park Chanyeol was innocently infatuated with the likes of Byun Baekhyun.

“Aren't you going to try to kiss me?” Baekhyun asked as he stared up at the taller man.

“Do you want me to?” Chanyeol asked in return, wearing that same smile that was now being overshadowed by the intensity of the man’s gaze.

He had already heard that line before. Many times. And each time only led to the same thing, so he made a half-shrug and smiled back, answering a noncommittal, “I don't mind.”

‘All you want from me is sex, anyway,’ he thought. But the phone in his hand rang, the man in front of him looked at him expectantly, and when he checked the message he got from Chanyeol, what he read was: That's not a yes.

“It’s not a ‘no' either,” Baekhyun replied, remembering what some of his exes told him before, but Chanyeol was having none of that.

“I'll kiss you when you tell me to,” Chanyeol murmured in his ear with a sense of finality and a warm hug before finally taking a step back. “So… I’ll see you tomorrow, Baekhyun.”

“...See you tomorrow, Chanyeol,” he waved a goodbye as his boyfriend got into driver's seat and the car became smaller and smaller from a distance until it was but a dot, then it was gone.

That night, his heart remembered how to skip a beat, but his mind had already begun backtracking to search for the lies and it continued to wonder about how long Chanyeol was going to be able to keep pretending to be a good guy.

Baekhyun had no expectations.

(Except that, this time, he actually had them.)


End file.
